On the other hand, if the Plame affair had not come up, the question of the moment might be, "Why did the CIA get the intelligence on Iraq's WMDs so completely wrong?"
Yes. In which case the retort would be: "We didn't!" Intelligence is being politicized to a fare-thee-well, to the detriment of the our security.
DeLong did not emphasize a point I think is rather obvious, namely, the fact that the politicization of intelligence, with agents' identities being revealed as part of the politicization, is crossing a line over which the CIA will go to bureaucratic war with anyone, including the WH. After all, lives are at stake, even if Plame's wasn't and even if her husband is a bit on the cheesey side.
A fight over principle.
I see it as a reminder of two things: Be careful with identities, don't reveal IDs negligently, and don't do it intentionally.
On reflection, the bureaucratic war may be justified, depending on what steps were taking to correct the problem out of the public eye. Such an approach may not have worked because of Wilson's antipathy to the WH--he was going to politicize the issue personally if the CIA didn't. |
